Kindling
For the first five years of living in this house, we heated solely with wood heat, using a centrally located wood burning stove. The house is set up to burn wood but also can use electric heat. It includes floor registers for electric heat, where each room has its own thermostat. Aside from heating, the home is totally powered by electric, which means high electric bills. We did not use electric to heat. Instead, we found a good source of already seasoned and split wood and had cord upon cord upon cord delivered each winter. I was still working full time, but my partner was home full time, so he took care of fire tending.
In 2017 that changed. He was no longer here and I was still working full time, so I had to use the electric heat during the day and burned wood at night. Starting in the winter of 2018 I used electric heat full time and continued through the winter of 2022. The cost of heating with the floor registers was extremely expensive. In October of 2023 I had mini-splits installed, which are ductless wall units that heat in winter and cool in summer. I saw my heating bill drop by about half.
This past winter, which has been extremely cold, saw the electric bill creep back up, even with the mini-splits. I decided to try and burn wood again and found a highly rated place that was able to deliver quickly — but the price of wood has gone up substantially since 2018! It was an experiment that I consider a failed one. I opened up the central area of the house that has the wood burner. Even with burning wood during the day and using the mini-split to heat overnight, the bill jacked up to 50% more than the previous month! Not only that, but a leak along a skylight dripped into my computer and destroyed it (even though son was able to save the hard drive, thank God.) After that chaos, I shut the room back up and went back to the mini-split heating.
OK, time to make this long story short. When they deliver wood to burn, there are lots of little what I will call scrap wood that make perfect kindling for getting the fire started. They dump the cord of wood on the driveway and it is up to me to stack it neatly in the carport. The kindling is tossed off in its own little area, and some was brought in with each wagon full of wood.
What really gets the fire going is that kindling and some fatwood that gives the fire a good start. There is a knack to getting a fire started and keeping it going, which I’ve written about here.
Now I have close to a cord of wood stacked in the carport for emergency use for any power outages next winter (:::knock on wood:::.)
critters without fur
must conjure creative ways
stay warm in winter
How do you heat your home? Are you satisfied with it?
Tao Talk 
Great insight into the pitfalls of log burning. We work hard on this in Spain but often end up with the gas on. It is hard work but it really does warm up the house more. It is well insulated for winter and summer with some old thick walls and the newly built ones are thick too! We have had so much rain that round the chimney this year were leaks galore. Sorry about your computer. Yes, the struggle to keep warm and dry.
LikeLiked by 2 people
It is a struggle and it is a big expense. I can go without AC in summer but not heat in winter. So sorry to hear your chimney was leaking. I’ve got a spot in my “mini greenhouse” that leaks every time it rains. I need to get it taken care of, just like so many other things :(
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes, always so much to take care of. And agree warmth in winter essential.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Who doesn’t love a good fire-heated home? The smell alone is so inviting. You need a lot of energy stacking that wood that gets dropped off! Great read, Lisa! 🔥
LikeLiked by 2 people
Stacking firewood will keep you fit. I did it in small segments, and soon it was done. Thank you, Nancy.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Fire heated homes are pretty rare in these parts but with the cost of electricity and natural gas if it helps with the bills that’s good. You’re recent experience wasn’t good but as you say it’s great for power outages which especially in your area are inevitable.
LikeLiked by 2 people
They came through here with natural gas a few years ago and I said no thanks. It comes from fracking and fracking is evil for the planet imo.
I got through the unpleasant and expensive experience. I worry about people who can’t cover heating bills in winter. It’s a matter of life or death :(
One thing that worries me are the number of trees I’ve been seeing just falling over. They aren’t healthy or the wind has done it. Whenever they fall there are power outages as all power lines are above ground.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Yes we live in turbulent times. Keep warm my friend.
LikeLiked by 1 person
All forms of heating and cooling have become very expensive these days
LikeLiked by 3 people
Isn’t that the truth. 😵💫
LikeLiked by 2 people
👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼
LikeLiked by 2 people
How’s your solar working out, Sadje?? I know you had some installed awhile back.
LikeLiked by 1 person
It working very well. Our bills have dropped quite a bit. 50% or more.
LikeLiked by 1 person
<3
LikeLiked by 1 person
💞💞💞
LikeLiked by 1 person
I lived for six years with strictly wood heat- and I have never in my life been so happy to rid myself of a necessary task!
LikeLiked by 2 people
6 years is a long time to do strictly wood. It’s a HELL of a lot of work. Hauling the ashes is another pain.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hi Lisa, everything has become very expensive. We use a. Mixture of wood and wall heaters during winter, but our winter is short compared to yours.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Yes it has, Robbie. DOGE has cut so many programs that help the needy, including heating assistance. I fear how many will die next winter.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I know, Lisa. I was reading about DOGE cuts just yesterday.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Kindling is important to get it going…I used to use that and some scrunched up paper to light it up…glad you are prepared now. This is probably a stupid question…but is wood cheaper in the summer?
Something I found out here….of course where I live is much warmer than where you are. We can have the air conditioning on 24/7 in the summer and our bills are not bad…but when it comes to winter…it’s through the roof with the heating. We have a fireplace but it’s in my music room…I don’t want to use it because of that…it would dry out my guitars.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Good question on buying wood in summer. I will call that guy and ask him. I understand about not burning wood in the guitar room. I have read in multiple places that fireplaces can actually suck the heat right out of your home.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Yea that would be our luck lol. We have thought about kerosene next year.
LikeLike
I’ve heard bad things about kerosene for heating. Just make sure you research it thoroughly ok?
LikeLiked by 1 person
Oh yea…Jennifer doesn’t like the idea either…just thinking of some other way to lighten the load from the electric.
LikeLiked by 1 person
When my late husband and I lived in PA, we only had a wood stove but our house/cabin was small. We did have a chimney fire once – that wasn’t fun!In my current home, we only have electric heat (electric everything). It wouldn’t be cost effective to try to change it out now, I’ll be 80 in 2.5 years (someday I will have to move to an independent/assisted living facility). Plus, we’d have to get a big propane tank.Donna: Click for my 2025 A-Z Blog
LikeLiked by 2 people
I hope the mini-split pays for itself over time but it will be a few years. I would never try to use propane. That stuff is ungodly expensive! I pray there is never a chimney fire!
LikeLiked by 2 people
We’ve had this discussion…and I will thank you again for telling me about the heated mattrass pad. It’s kept me cozy all winter. One of the things DOGE eliminated was money to help people keep the heat on in winter. A small thing, but just another example of their cruelty. (K)
LikeLiked by 2 people
You are very welcome. I couldn’t exist without mine anymore. Who needs to spend the winter down south with one of them :) I read that about DOGE eliminating home heating assistance for the neediest. I wonder how many will die next winter :(
LikeLiked by 2 people
For that and due to many other cuts…
LikeLiked by 1 person
We don’t need heating in homes in India in most of its regions because winters are not too cold. In some places in North, we used temporary electrical heaters for a couple of intense cold weather. Log burning seem so romantic to read in books, but reality has its own challenges.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Thanks for the info, Fatima. It’s like that in Michigan for the summer part. We don’t really need air conditioning because it doesn’t get too hot, but it’s nice on the few days it does. Yes, burning a fire and watching it is very romantic. I’ve done it many times.
LikeLiked by 1 person
What a wonderfully rich post, Lisa! I love it–there’s so much in it.
First, the word kindling and your description and photo of it. Just saying the word warms the cockles of my heart.
Second, the years when you heated exclusively with wood: it’s a lovely way to heat, but it takes strength and time, and as you say, wood has become more and more costly. We too heated with wood in two of our houses, but it was when we were much younger and could split our own logs.
Third, your experience switching to ductless mini-splits, with your electric bills going down, but then back up in extremely cold weather. It makes perfect sense to use wood to help keep your electric bills manageable–if it works! In any case it’s good to have a little stockpile of wood for emergencies, such as when the electricity fails.
We are in the same situation as you, having just gotten rid of our oil furnace and gone all-electric with ductless mini-splits. It’s too early to tell how much our electric bills are going to go up, but we’re being as thrifty as we can. And we too are keeping a little woodpile to fall back on.
Kindling. What a great word.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Josna, I’m glad you understand through experiencing it everything I said. I think if I would have kept the central room with the woodburner in it, the mini-split alone would have kept it warm and the bill low. It was folly to think I could keep that space open in winter. Live and learn.
Kindling is a great word. So is fatwood imo. It’s not fat in width, but it is fat with resin :)
LikeLiked by 1 person
I had wondered about fatwood–a new one for me–but hadn’t looked it up. It has a great juicy feel to it.
LikeLiked by 1 person
:)
LikeLike
We’ve got an adequate HVAC system. Luckily the weather here is pretty moderate over all because it doesn’t deal that well with lower or higher temperatures. Honestly, it’s not as good as our old one, but that seems to be the way of it these days: you can’t get a good product that comes with repair support and proper installation. It’s all as cheap and lazy as possible. (Boy, I sound like a grumpy old lady, don’t I? LOL). @samanthabwriter from Balancing Act
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks for sharing your situation, Samantha.
LikeLike